rumble

(photo by gtach)

gliding the metolius with three beautiful sisters in my wake. the rumble was not really on my radar considering the recent workload but i wanted to see how the body would react with the cumulative fatigue of the journey compounded. that, plus, there were temps in the 80's forecasted for sunday. i am behind on my heat training. the valley was still availed to snow and hail this very week. states is a summer race, so why not stimulate.

good crowd. fast dudes. pace was hot from the beginning despite my attempts to get in front and slow it down a few times. finally let the group go. pushed after the "grunt" section to try to bridge back up to the separated leaders despite protests from my legs. came upon a long dirt road and had my spirit broken by the reality of their lead. took care of the body and throttled back. found my legs again late and pushed hard the last 30 minutes to stop the bleeding and hit the line 4th for the 34 mile, snow shortened version of this oregon classic. rod ran strong the whole day and kept jonny kick flip in check so he could take second. the gucci crew represented well with 3 in the top 7 and two aid station captains on course. good to catch up with folks. twinkies and swine at the finish. ran into maureen, a former asheville resident who resides in p'town. got stories of copper canyon from jen and billy. killed the legs. spread my arms out and ran up the burms on the turns. good fun, my peoples.